Family Healthcare Clinic helps combat teen pregnancy

Family Healthcare Clinic staff members are working to combat a high teen birth rate in the community and have seen students respond to their program.

Family Healthcare Clinic staff members are working to combat a high teen birth rate in the community and have seen students respond to their program.

Even though sometimes students come in with an attitude of already knowing everything, they are surprised at what they learn, Executive Director Patty Leach said. A young man last year, who was slightly older than the average student, began with an attitude that he had nothing to learn. By the end, he had an improved attitude.

"He shook the instructor’s hand warmly and with sincerity and with some awe, thanked her for providing him with new insights and information," Leach said. "He expressed graciously how much participating in each session had helped and enlightened him and even impacted his life in a very positive way."

Family Healthcare Clinic staff delivered sessions of Teen Pregnancy Prevention educational services to 219 area students last year. They present abstinence and pregnancy prevention education to those in the Dewey and Nowata school districts.

The program has seen enormous success in Nowata County, where it is provided through the schools. According to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, there were no births to teen mothers between the ages of 15-17 years-old, during the most recently reported years of 2009 and 2010.

Teen pregnancy is a rising problem in the Bartlesville Regional United Way service area. The 2009-10 teen birth rate of 55 out of 1,000 teens ages 15-17 for Washington County is alarmingly high, according to the Kids Count Data Center study of data provided by the Oklahoma State Department of Health. To help combat this problem, Family Healthcare Clinic has started presenting to students at the Westside Community Center and the Boys &Girls Club of Bartlesville, in addition to the after school program at MUTUAL Girls Club.

"One of the things I enjoy most is getting to talk to young teens about how to make those critically important decisions in their lives," Leach said.

Family Healthcare Clinic also meets other needs in the community. In Washington County, an estimated 8,500 individuals are living with no form of insurance. Family Healthcare Clinic steps in to fill that gap with Access to Quality Care, a United Way program.

"Because the Access to Care program is truly quality health care at a low, affordable cost, individuals and families of our community are able to be proactive about their health needs rather than viewing their basic medical treatment as financially unattainable," Leach said.

Through this program, accessible, affordable primary care is provided to underserved, underinsured and uninsured patients. For the uninsured, the cost of an office visit to a private physician costs over $150, and many private providers will not see them. Family Healthcare Clinic staff step in to fill that gap, seeing 749 patients last year.

"It seems that nearly every day we hear from a new patient who has been neglecting their own critically important medical needs, because they previously thought that routine follow-up for chronic problems such as hypertension or diabetic conditions was something they just couldn’t afford," Leach said. "This is often the case when they lost a job or changed jobs and no longer had adequate health insurance — and usually months have gone by. When they discover that Family Healthcare Clinic is available to meet needs like theirs, often at just $40 for an office visit, they are obviously greatly relieved to know that they will be able to feel better physically and have less anxiety about their health concerns."

Another important part of Family Healthcare’s services is the Cancer Prevention/Mammogram program, which is also a United Way program. Many uninsured women cannot afford a mammogram. The cost of an office visit to see a doctor to be referred for a mammogram can be more than $100, and the cost of the mammogram itself is around $450. For someone making minimum wage, this is half a month’s salary. Having regular mammograms can save lives, however, as recent studies show that one in eight women in the United States will develop breast cancer.

Family Healthcare Clinic is meeting the need for access to mammograms for low-income women in Washington County and the surrounding areas. Family Healthcare Clinic staff issued 194 free mammogram coupons last year to women who needed the screening and provided additional screenings as needed to 67 women needing further diagnosis. They also educated 279 women in self-exams.

The Bartlesville Regional United Way’s Annual Campaign is under way. To find out how to contribute to Family Healthcare Clinic or other member agencies, contact the BRUW office at 918-336-1044, 415 SE Silas Street, Bartlesville, OK 74003 or visit www.bartlesvilleuw.org.